美国国家公共电台 NPR--Encore: A Hispanic community demands protection from pollutants

Encore: A Hispanic community demands protection from pollutants¹

Transcript²

A Hispanic community is demanding action from state regulators after enduring decades of pollution from a neighboring steel mill in Pueblo³, Colorado.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A Hispanic community in Colorado wants to end what they call environmental injustice⁴. Residents have complained about a steel mill in Pueblo for many years. Here's Colorado Public Radio's Miguel Otarola.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

MIGUEL OTAROLA, BYLINE⁵: It's Tuesday morning at the Fulton Heights Community Center. The coffee's brewing⁶ in the kitchen, and long tables are set up on the gym floor that doubles as a basketball court. A group of older women known as the Salt Creek⁷ Homemakers Club is getting ready for its weekly game of bingo.

JOVITA CHAVEZ: Most of them that are out there started when they were young, teenagers. And now there's a lot of them in their 80s.

OTAROLA: That's Jovita Chavez. She runs the center and has lived in the Salt Creek community all her life. She says it's been neglected by the neighboring city of Pueblo and the surrounding industries, especially the steel mill that's just an eyeshot away.

CHAVEZ: We're a forgotten little area. We're only a half mile from the city limits.

OTAROLA: Over the years, Chavez and other residents have fought for buses, paved roads, even a proper sewer⁸ system. Salt Creek used to run black with contaminants from the steel mill, which, to this day, uses the creek to carry and treat its wastewater.

CHAVEZ: That's what we used to call it, the black water.

(SOUNDBITE OF WATER RUSHING)

OTAROLA: Velma Campbell is a physician in Pueblo with a long history of environmental activism and who's been in steel mills across the country. She's standing⁹ at Salt Creek Junction¹⁰ on a rail line between the creek and the neighborhood.

VELMA CAMPBELL: We have an industrial legacy¹¹ in this community of which we're rightly proud, but we also have a legacy of environmental hazards that need to be addressed.

OTAROLA: That includes the steel mill's permit to discharge its waste into Salt Creek.

CAMPBELL: And I would like to see the polluting discharges minimized. I'd like to see the polluting entities¹² held responsible and whatever regulatory changes are needed.

OTAROLA: In 1979, the mill's owner, Colorado Fuel and Iron, used its political power to convince the state to set softer pollution limits for Salt Creek. It did so by stripping the creek of its official designation as a state waterway, something Campbell says needs to be reversed. The steel mill is no longer the main engine of the local economy.

So do you believe that this should be treated like a state waterway?

CAMPBELL: Obviously. Yeah. I mean, I think it's obvious. It is a state waterway.

OTAROLA: So do students at the University of Colorado's Environmental Law Clinic. After learning about Salt Creek, they partnered with Campbell and other environmental groups earlier this year to call for a formal review of the mill's discharge permit. One of those students is Tess Udall, the daughter of a former U.S. senator. She says she sees this as not just an interesting case but as an environmental injustice to the Salt Creek community.

TESS UDALL: It's not conforming with standards that the state uses for almost every other permit user. So it's a very clear violation¹³ of, like, public transparency, protecting communities and protecting state water.

OTAROLA: The state's water quality control division isn't scheduled to review the permit until the end of next year. People in Pueblo and Salt Creek want that to happen sooner. The law students sent the division a formal letter demanding it do so immediately and through a public forum¹⁴ so residents can share their opinions. They say they're still waiting for a response. The mill's current owner, Evraz, declined to answer our questions about their use of Salt Creek.

For NPR News, I'm Miguel Otarola.

1 pollutants   

污染物质（尤指工业废物）( pollutant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pollutants are constantly being released into the atmosphere. 污染物质正在不断地被排放到大气中去。
• The 1987 Amendments limit 301(g) discharges to a few well-studied nonconventional pollutants. 1987年的修正案把第301条（g）的普通排放限制施加在一些认真研究过的几种非常规污染物上。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 pueblo   

n.（美国西南部或墨西哥等）印第安人的村庄

参考例句：

• For over 2,000 years,Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States.在长达2，000多年的时间里，印第安人统治着现在美国西南部的大片土地。
• The cross memorializes the Spanish victims of the 1680 revolt,when the region's Pueblo Indians rose up in violent protest against their mistreatment and burned the cit

4 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 brewing   

n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• It was obvious that a big storm was brewing up. 很显然，一场暴风雨正在酝酿中。
• She set about brewing some herb tea. 她动手泡一些药茶。

7 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

8 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 junction   

n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站

参考例句：

• There's a bridge at the junction of the two rivers.两河的汇合处有座桥。
• You must give way when you come to this junction.你到了这个路口必须让路。

11 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

12 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

13 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

14 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。